Valentine Cake

The Art.

    As you may recall from my posts last year, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I apparently had a lot of time on my hands around then, which I used to make truffles, petite fours, corset cookies, and the stunning Roses are Red Cake. This year I've been busier than usual, so I'll try to make up for lack of quantity with quality. This particular cake is simple and cute, with fondant decorations covering a rich chocolate cake with strawberry icing. This is the first time I've used fondant to cover a cake, and I'm pretty happy with the result. Since I was in a time crunch, I opted to purchase rolled fondant, made by Wilton. I was impressed by how easy it was to work with, and it tasted much better than I had expected. Using Valentine cookie cutters to make pink fondant decorations was fast and easy, and made this cake look very sweet.

The Science.

    One of the things we have come to expect from Valentine's day treats is that they should have a deep chocolate flavor. I love this cake recipe because it gives you a wonderfully moist, chocolatey flavor, but doesn't require you to shell out $30 on Ghirardelli chocolate and spend and entire afternoon smashing it to bits and blending it with milk. Rather, I use Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, which is more affordable. Instead of just mixing it in with the dry ingredients, I "bloom" the cocoa in hot water before stirring it into the cake batter, reconstituting the cocoa solids and enhancing their chocolate flavor in the final product. For those of you considering splurging on Ghirardelli brand cocoa powder, I refer you to America's Test Kitchen's taste test results, which found that it was not worth the extra cash.

 

 The Recipe.

Chocolate cake:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1/3 cup dark cocoa
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

       Preheat oven to 350^oF and adjust rack to center position. Coat two heart-shaped pans (or two 8" round pans) with baking spray, and line with parchment paper (see the Almond Nutella Cake for step-by-step instructions). Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, dissolve cocoa in boiling water to allow it to "bloom." In a large bowl, beat together egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in bloomed cocoa. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake 30 minutes, or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto wire racks and peel off parchment paper to cool completely.

Strawberry Buttercream:

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup vegetable shortening

1/4 cup strawberry jam

5-7 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

    In large bowl, beat together butter and shortening on medium speed until fluffy. Add strawberry icing, and beat until combined. Beat in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Add sugar until icing makes stiff, jagged peaks. Beat in vanilla. If icing tastes too sugary or grainy, add a couple tablespoons of milk.

Assembly:

     Lay first cake layer on a cardboard cake round, and cover with icing. Place second cake layer on top of the first, and ice the entire cake. Set cake aside while you prepare the rolled fondant.

    Dust a large work surface and rolling pin with powdered sugar. Remove fondant from package and work in your hands until it is pliable. Form half of the fondant into a ball and place on work surface. Cover the remaining fondant to prevent it from drying out. Roll fondant out with rolling pin, lifting and rotating often to prevent sticking to the surface, until 1/4-inch thick. To transfer it to your cake, fold the rolled fondant over your rolling pin, center it over the cake, then lay it over the top. Smooth first with your hands, then with a fondant smoother. Press into the bottom edge of the cake, then cut off the excess with a pizza cutter.

    For the decorations, I dyed the remaining fondant pink with Wilton icing colors by kneading the dye into the icing, then rolling out as before. Cut a 1/2-inch strip for the bottom of the cake, and affix it to the cake with buttercream. Use either cookie cutters or a sharp knife to cut out any other decorations you wish. You can personalize these decorations for your very special Valentine.

    This cake should be kept covered at room temperature for a couple days, or in the freezer for up to one month.